Anderson's focus was on the ideologicalindoctrination of youth into socialism. In 1912, he wrote that that he and his wife (who he said was “also a Socialist”) intended their son “to have liberal education along that [socialist] line.” In fact, Anderson was fired from his first job, as a high school principal in Minnewaukan, North Dakota, for abusing his position to propagandize his students with his radical views. He was again fired, from a job as chairman of the English Department at California’s Whittier College, for his public stance opposing the U.S. entry into World War I.

His greatest success was the 1935 play Winterset, a tragedy in verse loosely based on the Sacco and Vanzetti case, which won him both commercial success and the Critics’ Circle Award. In the play, the judge is described as "crazy as a bedbug," and the accused is innocent.

Sources

David Petrick, “Dramaturgy,” March 2006, Both Your Houses, The Actors Company Theatre, New York